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Just before it got dark, I snapped a few in flight pictures of the Rapere-CS. The air was perfect with a very slight wind (less than 1 mph) out of the east into the setting sun. Fun to take pictures when you have to drop the flying line to take the shot. The first picture is on the top of the launch. The kite was about 30 feet away for the shot. Stealth kite on the hunt.

Second picture on the fly by. On a different pass, the kite again was about 25 feet away for the shot. This is the best picture. Again, the flash reflecting off of the shiny Cuben fabric. I also took shots at other angles, but the kite got lost in the back ground, such as the trees and the yard.

Since the 16 in. Rapere made with the Cuben Fabric flew so well, I am in the process of making a slightly larger one. With a wing span of 24 in., it should have a lighter sail loading then the 16 in. version. Cut out the Cuben fabric yesterday. Hope to have it in the air in about a week.

In hot cutting the Cuben, I now use an old laboratory rheostat that allows me to alter the amount of AC voltage to my 25 Watt soldering iron. I reduced the voltage to a setting of 75 and that was just enough to hot cut the fibers in the Cuben fabric. The film portion of the Cuben still melts very quickly, but now in a more controlled manner. Without the lower temperature, you have to move the tip of the soldering very quickly.

In making a smaller version of my Rapere using the Cuben Fabric, the goal was to fabricate the kite with a very light sail loading and still be resilient to normal flying abuse, so there are no folded edges. This removes the unnecessary weight of additional sail material and binding agents for a folded edge. The 16 in. and the 24 in. versions of my Rapere were designed solely for zero to very low wind conditions. My bigger concern with no folded edges was how the Cuben Fabric would hold up under tension at each location for the numerous connection lines, since the Cuben Fabric is not doubled under the reinforcements under those locations. So far, the 16 in. version is doing just fine with the Dacron and double sided tape reinforcements, and this kite has been left assembled under tension for quite some time. We will see how the 24 in version holds up after it is completed, which kite will have slightly larger diameter carbon rods that will apply more tension when assembled.

Hot cutting the Cuben Fabric allows me to have a sealed (melted) edge around the perimeter of the sail, because all of the edges are exposed except at the connection points. To date, the hot cut unfolded edges have been holding up quite well from the normal abuse while flying the 16 in. Rapere and my various Hawks (12, 16, 20 and 24 in.) in confined areas. The Hawks do not have a folded trailing edge.

I have found that in the 0.33 oz./sq.yd. light weight version of the Cuben Fabric, the fibers used to reinforce the fabric are quite strong as compared to the weak nature of the film portion of the material. This is very different from working with ripstop polyester (PC-31) or ripstop nylon. The film portion of the Cuben Fabric is almost as weak as the film in the Orcon Fabric. The Cuben Fabric is a more resilient due to the closer spacing of the fibers, where the Orcon Fabric only has fibers on an evenly spaced grid pattern. With the Cuben Fabric that I have acquired, there are narrow strips around 0.25 in. wide within the material where the fiber spacing is not as dense. In these strips, the Cuben Fabric appears to be more clear than cloudy. This is a weak point in the Cuben Fabric and I try to avoid this portion of the material when cutting out my sails.

With the Cuben Fabric, the difference in the strength of the fibers as compared to the film at first was a little challenging to hot cut, but after reducing the temperature of my hot cutting tool, I have the right balance that allows the tip to be just hot enough to melt the fibers. The film still melts very quickly. I hot cut all of my edges along a steel edge on a glass table. I have found that the steel edge acts as a heat sink and helps control the melting of the film potion of the Cuben Fabric along the edge, which provides a very clean cut.

In the recent past, I have attempted to cold cut the Cuben Fabric with scissors and a very sharp blade, and have found it to be more challenging than using these cutting tools to cut ripstop polyester (PC-31) or ripstop nylon, for the reasons described above. I have actually pulled a fiber free from the Cuben Fabric film while cold cutting the material. The bond is not as strong as you would think with the 0.33 oz./sq.yd. Cuben Fabric.

Just my thoughts based on my own experience with the 0.33 oz./sq.yd. Cuben Fabric. Use whatever method works the best for you on the density of Cuben Fabric you are using.

It wouldn't be attractive. My work shop is very neat and organized, but building these very light and small kites with my 57 year old eyes and large hands is quite entertaining, especially tying accurately placed knots in the 10 lb. spectra line.

Haven't posted for a while because I have been very busy with college visits for my youngest son and installing the wiring to run my entire home on our large Honda generator. I have been doing some kite related projects.

The attached picture is of a kite bag I fabricated to hold all of my Hawks. It's make of Cordura 1000, a 18" x 18" piece of plastic from Home Depot stored in a Cordura sleeve for stiffness, and grey 3/4 oz. ripstop for the six pages to hold each size Hawk.

The attached picture is with the Cordura Flap open. The Flap is held closed with three pieces of Velcro on the back. You can see the silhouette of 2 of my 12 in. Hawks that are stored under the first page.

The attached picture is with the pages open to 2 of my 16 in. Hawks. The kite bag can hold my Hawks with wing spans up to 24 in. You can see the silhouette of my 20 in. Hawk that is stored under the next page. The kite bag allows all of the kites to be stored flat.

Also, I just cut out the PC-31 for a stunt kite version of my Rapere. The prototype will have a wing span of 48 in. I will fill in the area between the two sails (canard sail and rear sail) with fine black mesh. I will post pictures in the near future.

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